


Sick Day

by ThatTurtle



Series: Before TCW vignettes [1]
Category: Before the Clan Wars (Original Work), Original Work
Genre: Angst, Blood, Fluff, Fluffy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sickfic, Vampires, Werewolves, coughing up blood, hints of m/m, intimacy without sex, nagas, snake people, unintentionally turned into bl, weird platonic really close friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-08
Updated: 2013-08-08
Packaged: 2017-12-22 19:11:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/916984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatTurtle/pseuds/ThatTurtle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fluffy/angsty piece from a few months ago. Centers on a werewolf, a vampire and a naga. Set in the same universe as TCW but takes place in the past and deals with different characters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sick Day

It was a typical morning for Blood vi Drac and his partner. The pair had just apprehended a particularly dangerous type of golem prone to spontaneous combustion.

"Let's go back to Headquarters." The vampire announced. His friend did not reply.

Blood hesitated. "Tch. You really want me to lead the way?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Ah? Right." Fenris Hale nodded. He knew his companion had a terrible sense of direction.

The werewolf took a step, lurched slightly, and stumbled towards a wall.

Blood's eyes widened in concern. He caught the younger man by the upper arm.

Hale blinked. He took a moment to catch his breath.

"Thanks." The blue haired male panted.

"What the hell just happened?" The shorter boy demanded.

"I dunno. I feel kinda light-headed." Hale murmured, still dazed.

"That's not good... Let's see if we can find a pay phone and call Jack."

Still tentatively gripping his partner's sleeve, the vampire led him to a nearby diner.

"I can't examine him this second, Blood. I do have patients other than you two. If he gets any worse, call me immediately. Otherwise, wait until 4. Make sure he takes a sick day."

"Okay. But I don't wanna leave him alone at his apartment. I'll check on him after work and find that he rearranged the furniture or something."

"Why not leave him with Naga for the day? You know how to get from his place to the station, right?"

"I think so." The vampire nodded. He glanced at Hale slouched over in a nearby booth.

The brunet lowered his voice before continuing, "You think that uh... He's possibly anemic? From letting me feed off him?" There was a hint of guilt in that question.

"I can't know for sure until I examine him." Jack replied.

"Okay. I'll bring him by at four."

"Good. I'll see you guys then."

The duo made it to the outskirts of town without further incident. They set out into the forest. After walking a short distance they left the trail.

"This is the marker, right?" Blood stared at the large rock outside a cave entrance.

Hale nodded weakly.

"Naga?" The vampire called out. "Naga, I know this is short notice but it's kinda an emergency. And you're kinda hard to get a hold of."

"Just a moment!" A friendly voice replied.

Naga slithered to the cave entrance. "Don't you kids have work? Did something happen?" The creature looked like an almost normal young man wearing a simple sleeveless vest. His jaw-length hair was a shade of violet. His eyes were a matching color. He had slit pupils.

From the hips down, however, his body looked like an enormous snake.

"Hale is sick. Jack can't examine him til later. I don't trust him to rest if left alone. Can I leave him with you?"

 

"Of course. Poor thing." Naga extended a clawed hand and gently pressed it to Hale's cheek.

"He feels feverish. What time will you be back to pick him up?"

"Like three or three-thirty."

"Okay~ Hale is safe with me, don't worry." The snake assured the vampire.

"Thanks, Naga. I'll try to make it up to you. I better get going." The rust haired boy ran off.

Naga turned his attention to the young lycan.

"C'mon, little one. You need to rest." He put a hand on the boy's shoulder and led him into the tunnel. They stopped at the main chamber. The ceiling of the cave was high enough that Naga did not have to duck his head very much.

Several lanterns were strung high across the ceiling. The snake's bed was in the center of the room. It was a pile of soft leaves and other natural materials.

He gestured for the younger man to sit down. "Are you hungry? Thirsty?"

Fenris plopped down on the pile. He shook his head slowly. "I ate earlier."

"Okay." The serpent gently touched the werewolf's face again.

"Oh dear. You certainly feel like you're running a fever." He soothingly ran a hand through the navy blue locks.

"This probably isn't helping." The serpent gave the sweater vest a tug.

Hale nodded dutifully. He pulled it over his head and set it beside the nest. The lycan shivered and folded his arms.

"Aw, I know... You're probably freezing. But you'll feel worse if your temperature gets too high."

The older male crouched and quickly untied the boy's shoes. They joined the sweater vest.

The snake lay down. He curved his lower half protectively around his charge.

"I'll be right here if you need anything. Don't hesitate to ask."

"Thank you." Hale rasped.

"Not a problem." The other man yawned.

"Sorry..." The lycan mumbled.

"Don't worry bout it, kid."

It only took about twenty minutes for the chevalier to doze off. The serpent sat up very carefully so as not to disturb the sleeping lycan. He watched Hale's chest rise and fall with each wheezy breathe. The boy was leaning against his coils.

He's so warm. It's almost pleasant. Lucky little warm blood. 

The older non reveled in the heat.

He dozed off for a time. Naga was awakened when he heard panicked gasping.

He found the boy on his hands and knees struggling to breathe.

 

Alarmed, the snake patted Fenris on the back.

His fingers dug into the youth's stomach, near the diaphragm. He desperately searched for an obstruction of some sort.

Hale choked back a pained whine. Naga instantly stopped in case he made it worse.

With a fit of coughing and one last gasp, the youth started breathing a bit better.

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Dark red stained his pallow skin.

The snake held a stone cup to his lips. "It's water."

The lycan sipped slowly. He cautiously crawled over to his companion and leaned back against the coils.

"You know what this is, don't you?" Naga asked quietly when things had calmed down.

"I'm not entirely positive..." The sick man sighed.

"What do you think it is?" The older pressed.

 

"Could be consumption." Hale admitted softly.

The serpent nodded slowly, as he let the grim implications sink in.

"Or it could be something even worse." The boy rasped.

 

"What on earth could be worse?"

"This sort of consumption in nons isn't contagious. This might be a death sentence, but it's my death sentence and mine alone. If it's worse... I think I may be the Harbinger."

"The Harbinger of doom, the downfall of the lycans?"

"Yeah." Hale breathed with a nod.

"The Harbinger as the Patient Zero of a hellish plague, huh?" Naga mused. "How long have you known you're sick?"

"Today is the first time I spit up blood, if that's what you're asking. But I had my suspicions something was very wrong for a few months... About the time she... passed away. I wonder if she caught on... She always could tell if something was eating at me."

"Nobody else knows?"

"No. I only pray that it's my death sentence and mine alone. Blood isn't going to take this well. I'm inevitably doomed. So why burden him?"

The boy's voice began to break. His dark blue eyes glistened tearfully.

"What the hell is wrong with me?" He buried his face in his arms. The large tail coiled around him kindly. The older male mentally punched himself for letting the appendage creep under the shirt. The boy didn't seem to notice the scaly skin making direct contact with his own. Or perhaps he did not mind.

"Poor child." The serpent murmured sympathetically.

He gently licked away the salty tears. Hale was used to the snake's animalistic quirks. He understood what the unsettling gesture meant.

"It's okay." He rubbed the quietly weeping man's back.

"I won't tell you what to do. And I won't tell anyone what you confided. But I think Blood would be more hurt that you knew all along and never said a word."

"You're right." The chevalier admitted, taking an unsteady breathe.

"Did you rule out pneumonia?" Naga suggested.

"Wouldn't that have killed me by now?" Fenris blinked.

"Not necessarily. You heal very quickly, even for a lycan. And pneumonia can occasionally be caused by an object in the lungs."

"That's why you were poking me when I was having that coughing fit, then..." The lycan realized.

"Yes. I was hoping you'd spit it up or we'd at least discover where it was inside." The snake explained. His tail playfully stroked the younger man's abdomen, earning an adorable but undignified squeak.

The purple eyed male teased the warm skin again. The lycan giggled, beginning to blush.

"Ah- C'mon- Please stooop."

Naga immediately obeyed.

"There's still a chance that you have a mundane, perfectly treatable disease. So don't give up yet. Please don't give up."

"A-alright." Hale agreed.

"Now, try to get some rest." Naga yawned and stretched. He gently set the chevalier  down in the pile then lay beside him.

**Author's Note:**

> This kinda turned into BL. That was not my original intention but oh well.  
> I've been sick lately. It inspired me to write this. This is set before the events of TCW.
> 
> Naga doesn't have a proper name. He's like 2500 years old but he hibernates for centuries at a time. Physically he looks like 27 years at the absolute oldest. He appears to be the last of his kind. He's actually rather benevolent and friendly for such a strong predator. He has purplish hair and eyes. 
> 
> I've mentioned Blood and Hale a few times before. They're kinda like their world's equivalent to law enforcement/police officers. Hale is the same sort of werewolf as Rien Kurosaki. He has navy blue hair and eyes. Blood is a vampire. He had reddish brown hair and eyes. He's about a year older than Hale but 4 inches shorter. Hale is about 20 in this episode.  
> Oh, a "non" is the term for vampires, werewolves, nekomata, naga, etc. 
> 
> BTCW's world is very anachronistic. (BTCW is the prequel to TCW.)  
> It draws inspiration from the 1890-1940s mostly. It's supposed to be odd. Each of the clans have a country in a pocket dimension hidden in the normal world. The reader is not supposed to know what year it is in the mundane world when BTCW takes place. TCW starts in 2009.
> 
> Originally posted on my dA several months ago.


End file.
